


Breaking the Silence

by ubiquitousness



Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-02
Updated: 2016-09-02
Packaged: 2018-08-12 12:42:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,765
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7934980
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ubiquitousness/pseuds/ubiquitousness
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Arthur once confessed something that put their friendship on hold. Merlin wasn't about to let that happen again. </p><p>*Cute little ficlet about Merlin jumping off a roof for Arthur.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Breaking the Silence

**Author's Note:**

> I'm trying to get back into writing. I miss it so much, so to get back in the grove I will be posting ficlets and small stories until NaNoWriMo. This prompt is Writing Prompt #539 from Unblocking Writer's Block on Tumblr. The prompt is “You’re lucky I’m tired because if I was fully awake I would have already shoved you off this roof.” Hope you enjoy! *I will be reusing this prompt for a FrostIron piece as well.*

“Today was not the day to do this. Why did I even say yes? I’m going to be red for years.”

The sun had been blistering, and yet there they were still on top of the roof after a long day. Merlin’s mom had asked them to fix a small hole that happened during the last rain until they could rally up enough money to fix it professionally. Merlin didn’t know Arthur would even help – Arthur was more of a supervisor. However, if Hunith asked, no one said no. 

“You said yes because you want to impress my mother than you want to impress whatever girl is next for you,” Merlin replied cheekily. Merlin knew that Arthur didn’t have to do much to impress anyone with legs, however he could never resist bringing it up to Arthur. 

“I don’t want to impress any girl. I’m already impressing enough. But, I guess I can’t say no to your mother.” 

Arthur loved Merlin’s mother. Well, everyone loved Merlin’s mother and in turn most people loved Merlin as well. However, Merlin would like to believe that if Merlin wasn’t there his mother would still be the most loved mom on earth. 

It had been a long time since the two were up here. Having grown up together, they spent many of nights at Merlin’s house. His bedroom window opened up enough to let to two onto the roof. It was one of Merlin’s favorite places, the only place that was truly just Arthur and his. Of course they had inside jokes, but it was a place where none of Merlin’s girlfriends ever ended up. He had always wanted it to be just Arthur and his. Nobody else’s. They hadn’t been up in years, and maybe that’s why Merlin’s mother asked them to do it. 

“Mom always has a secret motive,” Arthur mentioned.

“And what’s that motive?” Merlin probably knew his mom’s motive since they told each other everything, but he wasn’t going to admit that. 

“We haven’t been up here in years which means that she knew we had been up here all the time. She is a smart woman, Mom is, but she has a different motive this time. Something she knew we wanted.”

Arthur was quiet for a while. Not unusual, but this was a different kind of problem. Merlin didn’t like silence though and never had. 

“I think she knew for a long time that we would always come up here and just watch the stars. It made me feel so small, so tiny.”

“You are tiny Merlin, don’t forget that.”

“I am not tiny! I am a big hero, the one who saves the day. The one who fights the dragons and rescues the maidens. The one on the silver coins, the one under the crown.”

“You’d be under the crown, but not the way you think.” 

Arthur was sly in his response, so much it slightly scared and nerved Merlin, so much that he didn’t know what to say which made it silent again for far too long. 

“Merlin, it’s over.”

“I’m not understa-“

“It’s the end of senior year. Tomorrow is the last day. In the fall we go off to college. We won’t be home anymore and I won’t be under my father’s whatever we want to call it. I can be who I want to be. Who I wa-“

“You’re lucky I’m tired because if I was fully awake I would have already shoved you off this roof. Don’t say something you will regret in the morning Arthur.”

Again with the silence. 

“I didn’t regret it five years ago. I only regretted the fact that we didn’t…talk that much after-“

“It wasn’t your fault. Don’t blame yourself.”

“I’m not blaming myself for that but I could have been there more. Cheered you on more throughout school and put what I had done aside to be your friend. I’m sorry we didn’t talk for years. That I will blame myself for.”

“Friendship goes two ways, so it is not entirely your fault.”

“I’m sorry for what happened. I shouldn-“

“We already had this talk Arthur, and it’s getting late. Let’s go inside. I heard Mom was making brownies.” 

Merlin moved to get up but a hand on his arm stopped him. 

“Can we please talk? I’m asking as a friend?” Arthur pleaded with deer eyes. “Please?”

Merlin sat back down, back against the window. The moon was rising and it was casting a lovely shadow on the pair. High school had started off as hell. Two days before Arthur told Merlin he was gay, which Merlin was completely okay with after a few minutes of silence, but that he was also kind of slightly in love with Merlin. That one took a few years of silence for Merlin to be okay with. Between not talking for years, multiple girlfriends for the both of them and two years to grow up a little, it hadn’t been until the middle of junior year that they had started to be close again. It was like they had never stopped being best friends. However, neither could get it out of their minds why they had stopped in the first place. Merlin, at the time, didn’t feel the same for Arthur. 

“Sure.”

“I’m not sure what to say…or more of how to say it.”

“You said that the last time we stopped talking and frankly I don’t want to live my life without being in your life.”

“I guess that’s what I’m trying to say.”

“In what way though Arthur because I don’t know if we mean the same way.”

“For Halloween every year until we were 10 we were King Arthur and Merlin the Wizard. Until Gwen started hanging out with us and she was my Queen. But I never wanted a queen, I wanted a king by my side. Merlin, I still want you as my king and I will, figuratively speaking, conquer all the lands to win your heart.”

“That was very royal like.”

“I was being serious Merlin.”

“It didn’t sound like it. You sounded like we did when we were five, pretending to run off and fight all the dragons and bad magicians in the lands,” Merlin said with a laugh but even he didn’t feel as if anything was funny.

“I knew this was a mistake. I’ll call you later.” 

Arthur didn’t wait to hear a response from Merlin. He just got up and left Merlin in silence.

“Damn it,” Merlin said, getting up and checking to see how far of a drop it was to the bottom. 20 feet wasn’t too bad, but enough to send a stinging sensation through his chin. But, he jumped down anyways. Arthur was worth a lot apparently. 

When Arthur opened the front door of Merlin’s house, he was surprised to find Merlin there waiting for him.

“You are going to break your shin bone again jumping off the roof like that.”

“I would break every bone for you Arthur. I’ve already broken about half, what’s the other half?”

“It’s not my fault you are a clumsy oaf.”

“No but it’s your fault that I would purposely hurt myself for you.”

“I never asked you to ever do such a thing. It actually pains me to see you hurt.”

Arthur wasn’t looking at Merlin and Merlin knew why. It was the same reason none of his girlfriend stayed for long. Merlin was a hard man to love, and he was even worse at allowing his emotions to show to those who he loved. Emotions were not supposed to be shown, they were supposed to be hidden. 

“Look, Arthur I’m sorry. I’m sorry I’m hard to love, that I’m not good with emotions, that I didn’t talk to for years because of it, and I guess I’m sorry for it all. I don’t want to hurt you and I’m really good at hurting people.”

“You don’t have to say anything Merlin. I know you don’t feel the same way as I do, I always knew that.”

“I never said that though. Not this time.”

Arthur looked up at that, wary of what Merlin was going to say yes. But Merlin didn’t have plans to say anything. In fact, he had no idea what his next plan was. So he simply acted instead, bridging the gap between them and sloppily finding Arthur’s mouth. He had kissed plenty of girls before, even Arthur’s half sister Morgana. But Arthur’s lips were different, his height different, his body different in more ways than just build. It was a perfect match, it felt right, like Merlin had known it would for a while. A simple kiss was all it took for Arthur’s body to melt into his and for hands to find Merlin’s hair. When they pulled apart Merlin felt the breeze, not very welcome at the moment. 

“If you had just let me finish instead of walking out I wouldn’t have needed to hurt myself,” Merlin joked, hands not releasing Arthur from his hold. 

“What about hurting me?”

“You are a little bit stronger, it’s going to take a lot to hurt you.”

'“That’s not what I-“

“I’m not going to say I’m not going to hurt you, what I am going to say is that I will try not to. I want to try, I want this relationship, I want you and I wouldn’t want it any other way. Arthur, it took a while, but I have liked you for a while. I was just waiting for you to say something. I didn’t want to ruin our friendship, not again anyways. You mean too much to me for that. I knew your father would not have wanted it, but that didn’t mean I didn’t want it.”

Arthur kissed him once more for that, finding a new vigor in the action before withdrawing from him again. 

“You jumped off a roof for me. Is your shin okay?”

“It stings like a bitch but I’ll be okay. Will you stay the night? I don’t think I can walk back up the stairs and I sure as hell know that Mom’s back will give out if she tries to help.”

“That’s no way to ask me to stay the night Merlin. Try something else.”

Merlin rolled his eyes but tried again anyways. “Will you stay the night, Arthur? I like cuddles, long walks on the beach, and dogs.”

Laughter emitted on the front porch as the two walked back into Merlin’s house. Merlin liked laughter – it stopped the silence.

**Author's Note:**

> On a side note - I am looking for two wonderful Betas. Message me on Mansurville | Tumblr or on here if you would like to be my beta. Thank you so much! Hope you enjoyed! *Going to edit this story soon, sorry for errors.*


End file.
